Abstract

The production of hyperbolic meteoroids by inelastic collisions between meteoroids is estimated. It is found that, under reasonable assumptions, the calculated flux of hyperbolic meteoroids agrees with satellite data and with lunar microcrater distributions. We have therefore obtained independent theoretical support for Zook and Berg's (1975) β-meteoroid hypothesis and for Fechtig et al. (1974) suggestion that submicron lunar microcraters are produced by ß-meteoroids.